Back home - Sunday night

What a nice time we had at St Andrews!
Yes, we had to go to dinner with lots of people we didn't know and yes, I don't finding meeting new people en masse a comfortable experience, but we were staying in the Old Course Hotel which is lovely, and we wandered around St Andrews which is always fun - bonus was the lovely sunny weather!

Here's a photo of Ian in our suite and a couple more of round about him... Check out the colour of the walls!!




And the bathroom had the weirdest taps I've ever seen...

The turning off and on part of the tap is on the side of the bath but the water falls from the ceiling!!

So, did I manage to get the car insurance changed?

Yes!
Two further phone calls to the AA, the second one - fifty six minutes long and one call to the garage to check some information and it was done.
Well done Lee in South Wales! You managed to accomplish what I was beginning to think was the impossible.
D'you know, I could have paid as little as £274.00 or as much as £783.00 to insure the same car for the same period of time! Instead of transferring my existing policy over to the new car, it was actually cheaper to cancel the existing policy and start all over again, applying for a new one.
The new car arrived at lunchtime, yesterday. So, so far, she has been to Tesco - it's our furthest away supermarket which gave me a longer run - and down to the village to drop Ian off at the pub - Last night was one of his regular musical soirées - which gave me the opportunity to put the lights on!
Today, Ian and I are heading down to St Andrews. The bank has invited Ian and me to a formal dinner dance tonight. It's been years since we've accepted one of their invitations and Ian was beginning to feel embarrassed so we're going.

Wee bit frosty this morning but looks like it's going to be a lovely day!

Friday morning call to change my car insurance

10 minutes. My ear is beginning to nip. Maybe I shouldn't hold the phone so tightly against the side of my head.
The music is classical piano... soothing.
Every so often the recording is interrupted

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And after 24 mins, the line has gone dead!



Maybe it would be easier just to keep her. What do you think?

Wednesday 27th February

Yesterday, found the pick up from school very pleasant!
Instead of pulling layers of clothes tighter around us and lowering our heads to battle the cold wind and rain, we had the joy of striding out in the warmth of the sun.
I think Spring is just around the corner!
Here's the evidence...



"Follow me, Granny!" Luca calls back over his shoulder.
"C'mon, let's run!"
Groan...
I lift the leaden weights I call legs higher and crash them down again with as much power as I can muster. My speed increases ever so slightly. The increased momentum lasting for all of 30 seconds.
It's enough. Thank goodness!
We slow down and role play takes over. At least there's no more running:-)
Role play, you may think is a doddle.
Think again.
After an hilarious confession sharing with Carole last night, I have discovered that I am not alone in finding role play with Luca mind numbingly boring!
Luca's last visit to Granny and Granda's involved my getting into
character as a variety of different cars to meet up with Luca's characters - also cars, and pass the time of day. Luca would lead the conversation and it would go something like this...
"Hi, how are you?"
"Oh, I'm fine. How are you?"
"I'm fine, thanks. Would you like to go for a walk?"
"That would be lovely! Yes I would."
As we move off...
"It's a lovely day, isn't it!"
...and so on and so on.
No deviation from the Luca led script was allowed.
We would replace these cars in their appointed space in the line and take out the next two ...
I thought this was as low as it was possible to go till Carole confessed to recently having played the part of the seaweed in an underwater scenario at bath time!
What can I say? :-)

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Monday 25th February

Time for bed :-)
Ian has already settled down for the night, so here I am with nobody to talk to :-(

We separated earlier this evening. Ian watched the football upstairs. My choice was 'Law and Order' followed by 'Penguins -Spy in the Huddle' downstairs.
Loved the penguins! The filming was brilliant and the commentary at times was hilarious! Aren't penguins just so cute:-)

Anyway, since Ian is dead to the world, I'll just spend a wee bit of time with you instead.
What can I talk about?

How about personal current affairs...



Here's a photo of our tree felling operation, a couple of weeks ago. That tree was leaning so far forward, it was likely to uproot and clatter down!
Graeme - the tree man - cut back quite a lot of dead wood while he was up there. I think it makes quite a difference. Maybe I'll put in a few wee steps to make access to the embankment a bit easier...put a few more plants in. Maybe.

If you look bottom left in the photo, you can see where the cavity wall has started to fall down. I thought of getting a big sheet of plastic to put on the ground so's I could empty out the wall. Then I could rebuild it but I'm worried I'd be out of my depth. I've never built a wall before. Maybe, I'll think a bit longer.

I've been looking through my photos for something to share. Ian says I take loads of photos but no-one ever sees them...






What do you think? Worth publishing? I came across this Ladies loo in a pub in Adelaide. Island wash hand basins! That was a first for me.

Enough? Yes, I think so. It's quarter to midnight now and the light is disturbing poo Ian's beauty sleep.

Sunday 16th February

"Maybe there are sharks in there," suggested Luca, excitement shining in his big brown eyes!


The puddle was definitely big enough!

This was King George V park last Monday - the only dry day we had while Luca was sleeping here during his school break.

From Sunday till Wednesday evening when his daddy came to take him home, his Granda and I regressed to childhood as we constructed Lego transformers and brick castles, played Ludo, snakes and ladders and every other game we possess, crawled around the carpet creating dramas using cars, not to mention finishing the metre long 'colouring in' of the ocean which we gave to Luca when we got back from Australia.

Each morning, I was wakened by a little spindly legged mop head standing at the side of my bed, his eyes shining with excitement as he called, "Come on Granny, let's go downstairs and have some fun!!"


One of Luca's creations - it's a castle.



Here's the wee guy on one of his favourite spots. He loves to climb up and then run back down the hill

Evening of 1st July

That's Ian home from his week-end away to see his buddy in London.
The football final between Spain and Italy for the World Cup is just about to start so I've retreated up to the bedroom.
It's been a quiet week end. Friday was swimming. Just Gill and I. Elizabeth is off on her holidays just now to Italy and Myra is still in Australia.

Ross was working Friday night in the Douglas so I treated myself to a bottle of wine and a rack of spare ribs courtesy of Costco and watched tv.

Saturday,I took a trip into town to Jewson with the intention of buying rockwool but came home with a new pair of jeans instead.
The lad in Jewson suggested I buy glass wool instead because it has a government subsidy on it at the moment and would cost me a lot less. Hmm.
Dan had said rock wool.
So we priced it. £202.00, if we were to infill all four walls completely!
Then we had a discussion about the merits of recycled Kingspan which are foam boards with foil on both sides. It's very effective and the shower room is very cold but it's solid boards so you need to saw it into appropriately sized pieces.
Are you following this?
If you are, could you let me know which direction I should go in!

Lucy joined Ross and I at teatime. We sat her on the table and chatted while we ate our cottage pie. FaceTime is a wonderful thing!




While I'm on the subject of food, can I just say I'm enjoying using the new induction hob : )
Induction seems to be as good as gas in that it cools down as soon as you turn the heat down and so far has been easy to keep clean - I spill and splash a lot when I'm cooking but with this hob, I can wipe up spills with no danger of burning myself or setting the dishcloth on fire!

Today, I went with the girls to the GardenCentre after Mass for coffee and a scone. We took little Freya with us today as she's staying with her Papa and Granny while her mum gets ready for their flitting tomorrow.

They're just back from holiday in Majorca. All four of them went to celebrate Laura's thirtieth birthday.
They had a lovely time but their journey over was marred by a large stag party who were on their flight and were throwing back alcohol at 7.00am in the morning. They got very rowdy on the plane. They wouldn't sit down, took to standing on the seats to shout backwards and forwards amongst themselves and they got abusive when the stewards refused to give them more alcohol. Anne said that Freya was clinging to Lesley, terrified by their antics.
What a shame.
Maybe something to keep in mind if you're travelling - avoid Fridays if you're going to the more popular Stag week-end destinations in Europe!

Just one week to go before Ian and I head out to The States to spend some time with Lucy and Scott and the boys : )
It'll be a busy day at Aberdeen airport.
As well as us, Sri and Peter are flying out. They're heading down to London - Maya's baby is due.
And Johanne and Colin are flying to Paris for their summer holiday.
Happy days!